


So Sweet, My Soul

by LightningHope



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, envy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 06:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18889009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightningHope/pseuds/LightningHope
Summary: Damian has always known Colin was better with people than he was.(He was not ignoring his boyfriend. Hewasn't.)





	So Sweet, My Soul

**Author's Note:**

> For my Batfam Bingo Square: Envy

Damian held himself very, very stiffly. His face held still through the sheer weight of two great and noble lineages. The champagne flute (which naturally held no alcohol, merely a carbonated juice) was threatening to shatter in his hands. 

A pretty young woman with her blonde hair piled high touched Colin’s arm in a playful gesture as they shared a joke.

He wanted to rip her eyes out. How  _ dare _ she touch his boyfriend like that?

“You might want to put the resting bitch face away,” drawled Drake’s voice, dragging like nails on a chalkboard down his spine. 

“I do not need etiquette lessons from  _ you _ ,” Damian hissed. True to his poor breeding, Drake’s tie was already loose and the top button of his shirt undone. Unlike Timothy’s slovenly ways, Damian was still perfectly put together. Even his hair had refused to budge from its place.

How Father could think  _ Timothy _ was worthy of adoption still baffled him, even at eighteen.

“People know he’s your boyfriend, you don’t have to stand in a corner,” Drake continued in his grating drawl. “In fact, he’d probably appreciate some help with the sharks.”

Damian snorted. Colin was obviously having no troubles, having effortlessly charmed half the gathering already and getting the rest there. If anyone needed help dealing with people, it was Damian. Besides, Colin had been attending these events with Damian for  _ years _ now. Even if this one was the first where Colin was officially his date, not his guest.  He could admit it, he wasn’t great with people. He was, as Richard had said once, ‘prickly and passionate’. But Colin was always so much better at that kind of thing. He was sweet, and a great listener, and he always managed to say the right thing. Not like Damian, who kept making business partners upset with his frankness, and guests with his refusal to brownnose. 

“No, but seriously, glaring daggers isn’t really helping your reputation. If you’re gonna glare, you have to be, at  _ least, _ holding his hand,” Drake continued blithely. 

“I do not  _ need _ to do anything,” Damian spat, bristling. 

“I’m just saying,” Drake said lightly, eyes sharp on Colin and the little group that surrounded him now, “he just doesn’t look that comfortable.”

“ _ Holding his hand  _ isn’t going to help with that,” Damian spat rather bitterly, and he swigged the false champagne to try to cover it up.

“... the presence of his boyfriend and one of his oldest friends isn’t going to help?” Drake clarified, expression shifting from vaguely patronizing to bafflement. 

“I’m not good with people,” Damian bit out, feeling the regret and humiliation rise to coat the back of his throat and make his cheeks start to warm. At least his skin was dark enough to hide it, for now. “Not like Colin is… I would… upset things.”

Drake stared. Damian glared back, but Drake refused to bow to it.

“You know, I’m pretty sure he knew that when he decided to date you,” Drake pointed out, grabbing an actually alcoholic drink from a passing waiter. Damian sneered at the drink, but before he could say something, Drake hooked his arm through Damian’s and hauled him towards Colin and his group of admirers. The peons parted, of course, which Damian forgot about immediately in the face of Colin’s gentle smile, the one that meant he was relieved Damian was there but he was trying to be subtle about it. 

The rest of the evening passed in a blur of Colin’s sweet smiles and their hands brushing, sometimes coming apart, sometimes loosely tangling. Drake’s poor breeding showed again as he kept making faces behind Colin’s back whenever they were whatever his least favorite brother considered ‘too affectionate’. 

However by the end of the night, Damian was ashamed to realize that Colin really  _ was _ more relaxed by having him by his side, even when Damian upset shareholders or made donors purse their mouths at him. 

As the party finally started to break up, Colin kissed his cheek and went to go get their car from the valet. Damian, in turn, hunted Drake down. He cornered Drake in an empty hallway, and before Drake could attempt to flip over him and escape, Damian darted in for the fastest hug he could manage. 

“Your advice,” Damian grated out, “was not without merit. And I… appreciate that.” Spinning on his heel, he stomped off. He could  _ swear _ he heard Drake laughing, at which point he mentally made a point for revenge and soldiered on. 

Colin was, thankfully, already waiting and in the car and they drove home in blessed,  _ blessed _ , silence. 

But, as they were sliding into bed, Colin frowned, barely caught by moonlight as he shifted to face his boyfriend. 

“Dami,” Colin hesitated, “were you avoiding me tonight?” Damian jerked back unthinkingly, surprised.

“What? No!” Damian spluttered, knowing that it was an obvious lie that Colin would be able to recognize. “I mean,” Damian floundered, “I was trying to not get in your way.”

“Get in my way?” Colin repeated, puzzled, brow furrowing, “get in my way from what? I wasn’t doing anything special.”

“Well, yeah,” Damian mumbled, looking down, “but it was one of our first events as a couple. I didn’t want people to dislike you.”

“I don’t understand,” Colin said, gaze lowering as he concentrated. If Damian were to guess, he was replaying the evening, trying to figure out if he’d been treated like a special guest.

Damian coughed into his fist, his own gaze darting up to a corner as his cheeks warmed. “I still frequently upset people as these events, even if they won’t retaliate because I am a Wayne. They consider me too blunt, too crass. You’ve always been so much sweeter and more charming than me,” the heat in his cheeks intensified, “I wanted everyone to see that. Especially now that we’re dating publicly.”

“Oh,” Colin blinked, his eyes wide and green in the moonlight, “but I like that you’re so blunt. I try, but I know I let people walk all over me sometimes. You never let people do that to you. You never bother to fake your emotions just to please people.”

“Y-You like that?” Damian blurted out, startled. He knew that Colin appreciated Damian taking the lead, and the both of them were pretty bluntly honest with each other in the context of their relationship. Somehow, he hadn’t considered Colin appreciating that trait in general. 

“Yes,” Colin replied, a smile slowly spreading across his face, making his freckles bunch up. He tucked a lock of hair behind Damian’s ear, which was loose and messy now that he’d washed out the gel. “So that’s why you were avoiding me? Because you felt like people would like me better if you weren’t around?”

“Yes,” Damian whispered, now feeling ashamed and guilty for essentially abandoning his boyfriend during a long and boring evening event. After all, it wasn’t like Colin had friends among the older elite of Gotham. Not that any of them did, but at least they had experience entertaining themselves.

“Hey, hey,” Colin soothed, pulling Damian close enough to brush noses, “you were doing what you thought was most beneficial for me. I can’t say that I  _ liked _ it, but you’ve explained what you were doing. I’m not mad.”

Secrecy and hidden motives were second nature to the Bats, and as much as Damian and Colin worked on their communication, it tended to rear its head at the most inopportune times. 

“I… thank you, Colin,” Damian said eventually, pushing closer to nuzzle him. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

“Just so long as you promise not to get envious over my mad charms, okay?” Colin asked with a wink, laughing as Damian groaned and tried to suffocate himself in a pillow.

“I am never complimenting you again,” Damian enunciated clearly through the pillow. “You obviously cannot handle the responsibility.” 

“Awww, no,” Colin whined, snuggling closer and wrapping his arm around Damian’s waist. He sniffled piteously until Damian relented and snuggled up as well, his head under Colin’s chin.


End file.
